


once upon a void lol

by birdboy



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half-Life
Genre: Dissociation, Gen, unreality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28821888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdboy/pseuds/birdboy
Summary: benrey experiences a very slow collisionsome kind of fun marrying of hl2 and vrai through coincidence
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Comments: 9
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> warning that this dont have uhhh, grammar. AND that i dont know THAT much abt opposing force and stuff. if that bothers u flame me tehee...

the void couldnt tell you anything, because it's made to not exist. its real though, a space in the same way its not a space at all. for that reason, benrey wasn't real either...he was a creature in this space and sensations passed him by, he had no clue they were there...

THUNK

until he did get a clue, a sensation he couldn't ignore. Full force hit to the entire body. everything came back to him all at once, and his face burned with the chill glass of the.... ship? thing? and he knew he called himself benry, and he felt himself sliding, slipping. he dug his fingers into the seams of it, then, claws. because he remembered he could. the glass was frosted, and faded away into metal, and seemed to be moving incredibly sluggishly, enough to try and eject him back into the black around him, but also not moving at all. benrey proceeded to clambour all over the damn thing in investigation. 

he was awake now, from whatever stupor this place had him in, and he wasn't about to go back.

next best thing is... whatever this is. he found a door thing, and realized there might be an inside. he ripped it off it's hinges and it ceased to exist a small ways away. benrey could see inside his self made hole, and the void seeped in like a viscous liquid, at the same time it was thin and clear like air. the inside was not affected. it was a pod…ship... whatever, benrey's eyes darted around as he passed the threshold. it was like a living space for a human, kind of warm and lit up just like they did, kind of cluttered. 

the thing he found, though, moved and caught his eye, jumping with a start, was decidedly Not human. human shaped, maybe, but where the eyes ears nose mouth went had appendages and film that didn't belong. benrey couldn't fault the thing for that, he was only human shaped as well. when it didnt make any acknowledgement beyond turning it's front to him, he swung his eyes around again, filling in whatever he didn't see.

good thing, too.

tucked away, almost hidden, was something... someone he knew. he bolted upright, stepping forward on autopilot. ".... feetman?" he said, Immediately regretting the soft, unsure tone. "fancy meetin you here bro…in the uhhh, void…" he got no response. he did this sometimes, along with the rest of the... science team? thats what they called themselves, if he recalled right. gordon lay there, pulling a Shadow of the Colossus (2005) for the ps2. it felt wrong.

"you know him?" said a voice, and it took a good minute to realize it came from the human shaped guy who hadn't moved behind him. he turned around to it, squinting just out of curiosity that it made familiar human noises.

"what's it to you? can i ask who you are, you got a license to drive this...void ship?" 

"i was put here." the voice came through muffled and it's...their? breaths came through loud and strange. "im...adrian shepard."

"you know what feetman's doin here?" he asked. that was within his intersection to now. he was still waiting for his passport, he thinks. or something like that.

"no. that suit guy just left him here. just like me, i guess." benrey's mind tried to link the gordon and a suit guy, and it succeeded.

"that guy? didn't even share his ps plus," he mumbled to himself. "how do you get him to wake up?" he gingerly laid a hand on the man, touching only hev suit.

"he... hasn't yet. i know as much as you, probably." the shepard guy shuffled his feet. outwardly way too calm for an invader from the void showing up.

the next course of action for benrey was...leave, he thinks. he doesn't like this place, worse than anything else. he was taking gordon, too, cause he had to wake up. he picked gordon up, curled an arm around his middle and tucked him against his side, gordons limbs dragged against the floor and benrey didn't notice. "oh, uhh, im gonna go. taking this guy. you wanna come?" he asked, it was only polite.

adrian... didn't react, as far as he knew, and said "...no, i don't want to... there's a lot of…i cant." cool. less awkward that way, benrey thought. He prepared himself to teleport somewhere familiar, some place where he and gordon both could get their bearings again.

"see ya, then," he said and was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi...i said fuck it and posted this one...enjoy

the first thing benrey noticed was a grown man falling on his ass.

the second thing was that earth had so much gravity, and the gordon under his arm was covered in clunky metal on top of being gordon. their grip on him failed and he plopped on the ground. another grown man added to the floor.

"sorry," benrey said to no one in particular. he was polite.

gordon let out a groan, low, irritated, and used a hand to lift himself up. he locked eyes with the other guy on the floor, shocked and speechless. twisted his head around and seemed to realize he had no goddamn idea where he was.

"gordon?" the man on his ass says. gordon splutters.

"you know this?" benrey asks, pointing at the stranger they surprised. gordon cranes his head up slowly, as if just realizing benrey was there. brows furrowed, eyes wide, mouth hanging open just a little bit…

it took him a moment to scramble to his feet, and when he did he stood over benrey and demanded, "what did you do?"

ah, the consequence of having an awake gordon feetman. they mulled over this, trying to look thoughtful. "you uhhh, hit me with your car and i brought you home."

"what...what does that mean? i wasn't driving a car, last i remember i was in the theater... and Mr. Coolatta said…" he deflated from his righteous anger stance. "i was in a car? explain this to me."

"like…in a little void space car movin' along. i was in your... tragedctory. saw you big sleepin' inside and i was real nice and when i went back home i took you with me. literally a minute ago." benrey failed to mention his awake human-shaped companion, or that he mentioned that suited guy.

"okay? M-mr Coolatta said i could rest. i don't remember anything after that..." a shudder made it's way through gordon, and he finally turned to the third in this scene, who was brushing dirt off his ass. "hello, sorry to, uh, invade, my name is Gordon Freeman, who--"

"gordon. i know. don't you recognize me? it's... it's barney, y'know..." this barney looked concerned and confused and also tall, wide and uniformed, the same lines following benrey's own security vest getup. he followed the conversation, eyes moving back and forth, like pong.

"im sorry i...i don't remember--where did we meet, again?" gordon said, grasping at anything.

"black mesa, remember, with dr. kleiner--aw forget it, you look mighty similar to the doc, even share the same name," he mumbled that last part under his breath, "but it's clear this is our first meeting. barney calhoun at your service."

gordon does a pleased little chuff and says, "nice to meet you, man, despite the circumstances…" feetman's eyes glanced over at benrey, who met them. if he was trying to communicate something, benrey did not know. humans didn't have telepathy, but he swore they could. they spoke in so many different ways, some he got, some he didn't pick up.

but it could be possible that he just didn't know how to explain benrey. the silence lingered.

"can i ask where we are?" feetman broke it.

"well, we're at the white forest, the resistance's little northern base," he said with a sorrowful pride.

"resistance...?" gordon echoed, ben agreed, they hadn't heard of it either. "i, i've remember black mesa, that's for sure, but…" he said, spitting out the name of that place with vitriol.

barney cut him off, in the most politest way benrey had ever heard. "sounds like...somethin' funky is going on. and we got a lotta catching up to do."

"yeah, seems so…"

"are you planning to stick around?" barney calhoun asked conspiritively.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no idea like.... how to end? or where to go? im sorry this isn't ever anything that was gonna have a satisfying ending nd now im pullin my own pigtails for posting it. but it free so!:3 again i will answer anything


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. i did have the fandom tag as 'half life but the vr is self aware' which is soooo funny  
> 2\. there's some shit going on and i am woefully oblivious to it all im sorry  
> 3\. removed the 'i guess' tag ...smirt...

this barney caught the pair up to speed. benrey wasn't exactly sure if he had spent around 18 Human Gregorian Calendar years suspended, sedated by the void, and furthermore gordon, too, but there wasn't any measure to say otherwise. worlds may go on around the void, but it itself is timeless and nothing. meanwhile, gordon sounded more concerned about this 'combine' invasion and the fact that a fragile human resistance had assembled. he seemed to be tamping down the other stuff for later. all benrey could do was trail after them, half taking in the area, mostly listening.

barney calhoun was a friendly sort, maybe a hint of sarcastic joking in his voice once or twice. benrey instantly felt vaguely threatened by the guy's presence as much as he was drawn to him. he stood before his new intruders, gesturing and proudly explained a scan camera thing…? he helped cobble together in order to scan for trackers and chips under the skin…the thought of which made benrey want to grind his teeth. all they had was long defunct black mesa trackers of which the hev suit was made up. the point, though, he thinks, was that barney and his people--they made do. they were cunning. they could have their own technology and skills while hiding like a rodent in a snowbank. and they were proud of it.

"speaking of the H-E-V suit...i reckon you'll want to take that off?" barney gestured to feetman's orange exoskeleton. benrey wasn't oblivious, he knew it wasn't part of the man, but they sure hoped they'd recognize him out of it. didn't help that he still felt out of it, still drifting through, like he couldn't shake off the pixie dust of the void. nothing around him was the same, blessing and a curse, except for one gordon feetman. that's why he was listening so hard. intently. trying to come back to earth a second time. 

gordon goes on about how nice itll be to take off his second skin, stepping into a small, modified version of the hev suit pods. it began doing things to him as they just stood by before the man leaned in, looking closer, sofuckingtall, staring. it didn't take long for benrey to realize it as a challenge, he held the look and tried to seem unwavered. like, more so than usual. he's squinted at, with the guy's brows scrunching up in contemplation, benrey's eyes ransacked. it was only a moment, though, and barney calhoun spoke up,

"by the way, i didn't catch your name," his face relaxed again into an easy, handsome smile.

"benry," he said, and tried to be clear.

"ben...benrey?" he repeats, not expecting it. people always did this. benrey was benry, who else did they expect him to be? benrey just gave an almost imperceptible nod. "awful close to my own, benrey," his mouth moves carefully around the syllables, and this was an attempt to be nice and have something in common, despite it's potential phrasing as a threat or suspicion. benrey didn't have anything to say back. try again later. 

his eyes slid away from barney to brand new movement of gordon peeling off the thick black gloves, free of his orange box he called the H-E-V suit, and it wasn't particularly interesting to him but he was softer now, his shoulders, his hips flowed into something much more kind and human. he made a deep sigh and his whole body moved with it, idly rubbing his fingers together. something about this state of him almost subdued him a little, less bold without his shell, maybe. something in the air told him that wasn't quite it, and it wasn't until he met gordon's slightly unimpressed gaze back at him did he stop zoning out. (that was another thing about humans, they seemed to always know when something was looking at them.)

this is where he should quip, to the laws of banter benrey knows of, but his mind is filled with void.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> be well from here on out

**Author's Note:**

> i promise ill get back to the other ongoing i have but i started writing this and its part of a thing with ocs and stuff...so its for fun and easier to pump out. this is entirely uhhh canon chara work ok? i will answer any questions :)


End file.
